The story of my life - Part 2

My mother got married the second time and my stepfather treated my brother, sister and me like his own children.

We moved to the country side of Coburg, about 4km from town center. (Coburg had a population of 45,000 at that time).

The flat was fairly large but the restroom was more or less a latrine with a concrete tank which was emptied by a "Huzanga *) tank truck" from time to time.

The latrine attracted fat flies and those attracted spiders. They built beautiful webs to wait for food.

My sister was afraid of spiders and I made her sh.. into her pants one day, telling her a fat spider had built it's web right at the ceiling overhead the latrine. :)

Near the house was a construction yard where workers prepared iron armament and beams for bridges and tunnels. We got leftovers of iron and wood for own construction work.

There was also a small river (6m wide) with enough water to go boating.

With the help of our stepfather we built a boat and rowed up and down the river to discover more of the world around us.

After returning from discovery tours we took a break in our self made second home built into the river bank. We also got an obsolete tar oven which we used to cook fish and crabs we harvested in the river.

Unfortunately we got between the "front lines" of two village gangs. I thought it was a wise decision to block the river (using iron rods) so they temporarily paused their "war".

After one week our boat was stolen including a wooden pole and a chain attached to it. We found it 4km downstream loaded with bricks to make it sink.

I was so upset that I used the same night for revenge. There were enough barns all over the villages where I stole stacks of straw and put their boats on fire.

One day later "war" came across to our place. Both gangs wanted to beat us up, but my sister and me were a good fighter team defeating the attackers with my sister having mutated to a "walking inferno" hitting the aggressors on their noses using a hand broom.

We lifted our boat which provided "sea superiority" :D

My sister attended school the same year in autumn and had trouble with her class mates during a break. Those little girls were biting like crocodiles and kicking like mules when they fought.

I went between them to separate them which must have been misunderstood by one the teachers. She slapped me and as already proved to work properly I "nailed" her to the brick wall using my head.

That measure took care of instant peace.

We had to learn a verse on day and I studied thoroughly to be able to fluently speak it when prompted. Everybody in our class had to speak it and some of us got spanked with a bamboo stick by the teacher not telling why.

When it was my turn I ended the verse and got spanked as well.

When I took a bath in the evening my mother asked where I had got the bruises on my back. I felt guilty having done something wrong and first didn't tell her.

After a while I told her I had been spanked by the teacher, but don't know the reason. My mother thinking sharply asked me who of my classmates had not been spanked.

She found out the reason quickly. There were two different issues of the book we used. In one issue the part of one sentence was ".. und hat mit ihrem Kusse die Sonne aufgeweckt" and in the second issue ".. und hat mit seinem Kusse die Sonne aufgeweckt:

Everybody with the second issue got spanked.

Next day I went to school as normal and attended lessons until there was very loud noise on the corridor with somebody screaming - and undoubtedly - I also heard my mother's voice in anger.

My mother beat the teacher up and down the corridor until the director stopped her. She had done an excellent job in the meanwhile since the teacher was bleeding from several wounds.

The teacher apologized for not having taken the time to read the two issues of the book and admitted he had done wrong.

That was not enough to satisfy me and I demanded that everybody having been spanked by teacher should have one free hit on his back.

I guess he never forgot that day. It was him to return home with heavy back aches this time. :)

*) "Huzanga", Kisuaheli word for "sh.."